Rhamnalej.] 



STACKHOUSIACEiE. 



589 



Order CCXXVI. STACKHOUSIACEiE.— Stackhousiads. 



Stackhouseae, R. Br. in Flinders, 555. (1814).— Stackhousiaceae, Ed. Pr. Isxxviii. ; Endl. Gen. ccxlii 

 Diagnosis. — HJiamnal Exogens, with m(mopetal(yus flowers, and episepalom stamais. 



Herbaceous plants, occasionally somewhat shrubby, 

 sometunes minute. Stipules lateral, very minute, 

 terminal, each flower with 3 bracts. Calyx 1 -leaved, 5-cleft^ 

 equal, mth an inflated tube. Petals 5, equal, arising from the 

 top of the tube of the calyx ; their claws combined in a tube 

 longer than the calyx ; their Umb narrow, stellate. Stamens 

 5, distinct, unequal (2 alternately shorter), arising from the 

 throat of the calyx. Ovary superior, 3- or 5-celled, the cells 

 partially separated, adliering to a central column, each \vith a 

 single erect anatropal ovule ; styles from 3 to 5, sometimes 

 combined at the base ; stigmas simple. Fruit of from 3 to 5 

 indehiscent, -vvdnged, or wingless pieces ; column central, per- 

 sistent. Embryo erect, in the axis of, and almost as long as, 

 the fleshy albumen, with short obtuse cotyledons and an 

 inferior radicle. 



This Order shoidd stand between Spindle-trees and Spm-ge- 

 worts, according to Brown ; from the latter of which it 

 difiers in the structure of the fruit, and in the position of the 

 seeds, besides other characters ; from the former in the 

 presence of stipules, in the cohesion of the petals in a tube, in 

 the deeply lobed ovary, and so on. The hermaplirodite flowers 

 remove the Order, however, fx'om Spm'ge worts; its monopeta- 

 lous flowers are much at variance \vith the structure of 

 Spindle-trees. Nevertheless, the 3-celled ovary, in flowers 

 otherwise pentamerous, is entirely that of Hippocrateads and 

 Spindle-trees, and recalls the Sapindal Alliance, to which all 

 those Orders would be referable if their stamens were not so 

 distinctly perigynous. 



A few New Holland shrubs compose all that is known. 



Their properties are unascertained. 



GENERA. 



Stackhousia, Smith. | Tripterococcus, Endl. 



Numbers. Gen. 2. Sp. 10. 



Sapimlacece. 

 Position. — Celastracese. — Stackhousiace^. — Sapotaceae. 

 Eujphorbiacece. 



Leaves simple, entire, alternate, 

 Spike 



Fig. CCCC. 



Fig. CCCC— 1. Stackhousia ; 

 5. one of its cocci cut across ; 6. ; 



2. its corolla ; 

 n ovule. 



3. calyx, &C. ; i. part of the fruit of Tripterococcus ; 



